Temple Trip: Transfer 3, Week 3‏

Hey everybody! So yesterday we had a General Authority (Elder Arnold
of the Seventy. Pretty cool, but not like Quorum of the Twelve or
anything) come speak to us, so they moved our P-Day from Monday
(yesterday) to Tuesday (today). So don’t worry, I’m not being apostate
because I’m sending emails today, because today is our actual P-Day.
That being said, last week was a crazy week.

Last Monday we had a regular P-Day. We didn’t do much because we had
to drive around some English elders because they don’t have a car, so
all we really did was go to different stores all day. We shopped for
groceries, then went to Ross (missionaries LOVE Ross), then a couple
thrift stores (missionaries also LOVE thrift stores) and we went to a
Western store. We went to the western store because my comp and one of
the English elders were cowboys before they came out, and I always
wanted to be a cowboy, so we went in and looked around. Everything was
too expensive, so nobody bought anything.

Tuesday was our Temple trip. We are so lucky because we get to go to
the temple every three months, or every other transfer, and it’s
always an awesome experience. We had our session early in the morning
and we were there until after noon. When we left, we figured out that
our car battery had died, so we went to the Visitors Center to get
some help and while we were there we got to watch the new Christmas
church video (#ASaviorIsBorn #HaNacidoUnSalvador). It’s such an
awesome video, and we love it so much. If you haven’t seen it, you can
visit Christmas.mormon.org or if you feel inclined to watch it in
Spanish, you can find it on Navidad.mormon.org. It’s awesome. Anyways,
we ate lunch and came back to Milwaukie. We knocked some doors in our
area and we got a call from a lady in our branch who was supposed to
feed us that night. Her name is Hermana Daisy and she is from El
Salvador. Her mom is also in our branch and her name is Rosa and she
is 96 years old. Daisy is always taking care of her mom because she do
anything for herself, and she has trouble remembering stuff and
talking. Really, the only things she says are: Hola (hello), adios
(goodbye) and Gloria a Dios (glory to God). She’s a funny old lady,
and she shouts “Gloria a Dios” out at sacrament meeting and such. We
have given her several blessings because of her health before in the
past. Anyways, Daisy called us crying on Tuesday and said that Rosa
had a massive heart attack and that they were in the hospital and she
couldn’t feed us that night. We said it was alright and we decided to
go to the hospital. We were pretty much the first ones Daisy called
and right as we got there they were taking Rosa into the critical care
unit. We waited in the waiting room for a long time talking with Daisy
as they tried to stabilize Rosa. They let us come back after a while
and the doctors said that she didn’t really have a chance because part
of her heart wasn’t working, her lungs were filled with water and her
kidneys weren’t working. We honestly thought she was going to die
right there and it was all very surreal to us. Daisy was very upset
because she loves her mom a lot and for the past couple of years she
has been taking care of her mom. Daisy asked us to give her a
blessing, so we did. We decided to give a blessing of peace and
comfort and we asked for peace and ease as she went from this world to
the next. It was very sad because it was only us and Daisy there, and
there was nothing we could really do. Eventually, Hermano Alba showed
up and was there with us and helped us try to comfort Daisy. Some of
Daisy’s family also came and the doctors said we had too many people
in the room so we left and went down to the cafeteria to get dinner.
We ate and went back and as we were going back, some English guy saw
us and asked if we could give a blessing to his wife, so we went and
talked with them for a while and gave her a blessing too. After that,
we went back and stayed for a little while with Daisy’s family, just
praying and trying to comfort them. Eventually the doctors kinda
kicked us out because there were too many people there and they were
changing shifts, so if we weren’t family we had to leave. All in all,
we were there for about 4 hours and it was a weird experience because
I have never really experienced someone close to me being in such bad
condition, and not knowing if they were going to make it or not. It
was all really surreal, and made me reflect on my life, and made me
think about my friends and family. Thankfully, Rosa didn’t pass away
on Tuesday.

Wednesday was a pretty regular day. We had a zone meeting in the
morning and had a training on how to better us the Christmas tools the
church has put out. Later that day, we also went and saw Delilah, the
pastor’s wife and showed her the Christmas video and talked with her
about Christ. We also went back to the hospital that night to check on
Daisy and Rosa. Rosa was doing better than she was the day before, but
she was still in pretty bad shape. We talked with the family and
prayed with them and asked if we could help in any way.

Thursday was a pretty regular day too. We knocked some doors, we
visited with a less-active and visited the hospital again. They had
moved Rosa out of critical care and into a regular room. She was still
not really getting better, but she was still hanging in there. Again,
we talked and prayed with their family and tried to comfort them.

Friday we had a regular day. We didn’t have much success knocking, so
we went to go visit some less-actives again and we talked with some of
them. We went to the hospital again and they told us that since the
doctors really couldn’t do anything for Rosa because of her heart and
kidneys they were going to move her back to her home in hospice care.
It was very sad because their family knew there was nothing they could
do, and we’re just waiting for her to pass. Again we stayed and prayed
and talked with them for a while.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the church to clean the
building. After that we went around town and gave out invitations for
the Christmas party we were going to have for the devotional on
Sunday. We also went to lunch with Kyle Mcallister, one of the
missionaries that used to serve in my ward back home, because he lives
near here and wanted to come out and see me. He was always a good
example to me and he took me out a lot with them on splits and made me
excited about missionary work. After lunch, we delivered a couple more
invitations and after that we went over to the Sopers and helped them
put up their Christmas tree and decorate it and we also decorated
cookies. They’re the best! We had dinner there and we talked for a
while, and then we went with Brother Soper to help a family move and
put some furniture together. That night, Daisy called and said that
Rosa has passed away at their home. It was really sad. So please keep
her family in your prayers.

Sunday we had church and after sacrament meeting we had a big branch
Christmas party where everybody brought food and we ate and talked and
then we all sat and watched the Christmas devotional. It was a great
experience!

So that was all for our week, it was a really weird week but I’ve
learned a lot and have reflected a lot about my life and my
relationship with others. I hope everybody knows that I love y’all and
that y’all are amazing and I am so grateful for all your love and
support for me. I hope y’all have a great week.

Elder Davies

The District temple pic. (Back L to R: Elder Hanegan, Kreitel, Ellis, Giles. Front L to R: Me, Hill, Beamer, Clark)
Baby Shower pic 😉
Special Zone meeting. There are too many people to name them all, so I’m just gonna say it’s the zone.
Elder Davies and former Elder Mcallister.